1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic reprographic printing system for scanning from, and/or printing on pages of variable sizes. In particular, the present invention relates to an electronic reprographic system for creating an electronic image of a page, such as by scanning an original document, storing the electronic image in memory, and shifting the image based on the difference between the sizes of the original document and output stock.
2. Description of the Related Art
Current printing systems are capable of shifting an image before printing on the output stock of a print job. These printing systems commonly shift the scanned images of documents in a print job a standard distance, for creating, for example, sufficient margins for binding the final product. Copying machines are also capable of forming set margins when printing on both sides of a duplex page, the process involving shifting the image in one direction on a first side and shifting the image in the opposite direction on the second side. Image shifting devices are also capable of shifting the scanned image of a document on copying paper, depending on the direction of conveyance of the copying paper. These systems commonly shift the image a preset standard distance for the entire print job.
The related art has disclosed printing systems which allow for shifting an image during copying.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,674,864 to Stackenborg et al discloses a reproduction device which includes a method for programming the width of an image-free edge zone on a copy sheet. By pressing a particular button on the control panel, the width of an image free edge zone can be adjusted at the left and righthand sides of a copy sheet to correlate the size of an original with the size of a selected output stock.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,745,441 to Maruta et al discloses a copying machine which forms filing margins on both sides of a copy sheet by shifting a reduced version of the image from an original. The optical system scanning the original is shifted a predetermined distance away from its normal position for placing an image onto a copy sheet within the predetermined margins.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,029 to Ito discloses a copying machine with an image shift function which provides a defined filing margin on a copy sheet by shifting the transfer position of a document image to one edge of a copy paper.
A standard image shift across an entire print job may be sufficient when the input and output documents are all of a standard size. However, problems arise when either the input or output documents are of varying dimensions. For example, tabs, whether fullcut or precut, are of dimensions different from the rest of the output stock. Thus, a standard image shift for an entire print job would not be helpful when only certain pages, such as tabs, require a shifted image on the output document. A standard image shift for an entire print job would also not be helpful when an image shift for the entire print job is desired in addition to a special image shift for particular documents, such as tabs.
What is needed, therefore, is an electronic reprographic printing system that can apply a special image shift to particular documents of a print job based on the difference between the size of the input stock that is scanned and the size of the output stock onto which the image is transferred. Further, a flexible system is needed that can apply an image shift for an entire print job, but automatically replace the image shift applied across the job with the specialized image shift, such as when printing on tabs. Also needed is a system that not only can be programmed to recognize the location of pages requiring a special image shift, but also recognize the dimensions of these pages and variably shift the image accordingly.
While the related art recognizes image shifting for a print job, a flexible system is needed that allows for specialized image shifting, such as for tabs, that can be used in conjunction with an image shift function for an entire print job, and that allows for variably shifting the image depending upon the sizes of the input document and output stock.